Behind the scenes during late night filming of Endeavour series 5 episode 4 in Oxford. This was a tricky little set up that took quite a bit of planning, rehearsing and lighting to transform what is usually a very dark street. You can see in some of the earlier shots how dark the background is compared to when the bright background light was switched on to give a wash of light across the fronts of the buildings.

On my first visit to Endeavour HQ the crew weren’t using the interior CID set on the day I was there so it wasn’t lit. I was fortunate enough to visit a second time when there was a day of filming taking place in the CID set on a different episode so I have pictures from that which I am working my way through. Here are some shots from my first roll of the day. On this occasion I decided to use a lens that hasn’t had much use for quite a while (35/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton), mainly because it’s designed for very low light levels and also because it’s quite big and heavy and not the kind of lens you want to be carrying around all day when there is plenty of light. The other reason is because I have taken quite a shining to the 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton which is tiny in comparison.

Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 5 episode 3 in Oxford. It was a very hot day in July and the crew had a very busy schedule as I recall because they were only in Oxford for one day on this occasion. I decided to use colour film for a change to capture the summery feel. It’s not often you see the lighting crew setting up lights outside in bright sun but I must say it did make the front of the Jaguar look nice.

If you’ve ever travelled around the back streets of Oxford at night you’ll know how dark they are but that all changes when the Endeavour crew come to town. With a few well placed lights they can completely transform a place as you can see here in Lamb and flag passage – a place usually so dark you could easily bump into someone without too much effort. The first couple of shots are from a very quick setup in Radcliffe Square which were at the start of this roll. For the night shots I was frequently dropping my shutter speed to 1/15th and 1/8th to prevent the shadows from plugging up and I have to say how impressed I am with my Leica M6 because although there’s no mirror inside to cause camera shake the cloth shutter does move in the back of the camera but the body is so solid that vibration is next to none at all. Of course steady hands are required to avoid camera shake but having a solid camera body does help a lot. More pictures to come after the episode is broadcast some time in 2018. No spoilers.

Last weekend I visited a war and peace reenactment event in Kent and here are some of my first pictures I made there. Most of the other film I shot there was colour so those pictures will follow in the future. The event was spread over a huge area of fields that usually make up a camping ground but it was easy enough to walk around. Weather in the morning was fine but in the afternoon rain clouds rolled in very quickly and rain stopped play – for me at least – which was a shame as it was right after having discovered the home front village which had a little street scene that had been recreated complete with a row of shops and a fully functioning barber!

Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 5 episode 2 in the Covered Market, Oxford. I rated this roll of HP5 at ISO 1600 because the light level is usually quite low inside the market but I completely underestimated the brightness of the lighting which looked like sunlight pouring into the café windows. I enjoyed looking into the café from outside with the cast and crew moving in and out of shafts of light and shadow mixed with reflections from the glass.

Behind the scenes photography from filming of Endeavour series 5 episode 2 in Oxford a couple of weeks ago. I’ve picked out a selection of spoiler free shots, others will follow after the broadcast of the episode. I did a good amount of colour photography as well which is not my first choice but sometimes a situation calls for it and I couldn’t resist it when I saw the vintage bus pull up – those pictures will follow in the future. I am beginning to really like the Voigtlander 40/1.4 lens that I used for all of the these shots to the point that I don’t even pack my 50/1.5 Nokton classic – something I never thought would happen.

Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 1 in Oxford. These are spoiler-free images of the crew hard at work. I’ll post the rest of my pictures after each episode has been broadcast.

Jeremy Irons came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A session with current president Michael Li and I did some photography at the event. Unfortunately the event wasn’t filmed for the YouTube channel but I can tell you it was a lot of fun to listen to Jeremy share insights about his career on stage and in movies. I did struggle slightly with the lower than usual light levels because the video crew set up two lights whenever they’re filming but I dropped down to a slower shutter speed to compensate and lucky for me Jeremy doesn’t move too much when he speaks. I’m very pleased with these results and Ilford HP5 is a firm favourite of mine when I need a b&w film for low light photography.

John Cleese came to the Oxford Union to give a talk and I went along to do some photography. I found the talk very interesting with plenty of humour thrown in for good measure. The Union was absolutely packed to the rafters which is something I haven’t seen since Stephen Hawking visited. This event was the first time I got to use my Voigtlander 75/1.8 Heliar lens in low light, I bought it mainly to photograph the Oxford Union events with because I wanted more reach than the 50mm I was using and I have to say I am very pleased with how it performed.